An Advanced Practice Nurse's Contributions to the Care of Opioid-Dependent Patients in an Acute Somatic Hospital: A Qualitative Study.

AIM

To explore an Advanced Practice Nurse's contributions to the health care of hospitalised polysubstance-dependent patients undergoing opioid agonist therapy from the perspective of patients and involved professionals.

DESIGN

A single-case study was conducted using Interpretive Description methodology. The Advanced Practice Nurse's service served as the case examined from the perspectives of the patients and the involved health care professionals.

METHODS

We conducted five guided individual interviews (patient n = 4, professional n = 1) and two focus group interviews (hospital-internal n = 4, -external n = 5 professionals).

RESULTS

Overall, seven themes were identified. Of these, five involve the Advanced Practice Nurse's activities: 'use specialised knowledge and experience'; 'act as a leading and coordinating reference person'; 'mediate between worlds'; 'build relationships and trust' and 'embody solution-oriented support'. The two remaining themes-'provide relaxation' and 'effectively improve patient care'-describe the impact of the APN's activities.

CONCLUSION

The APN service improves clinical practice and closes a healthcare gap for polysubstance dependent patients in acute hospitals. We recommend developing similar services in other acute somatic hospitals and conducting quantitative research on the service's effectiveness. In addition, we suggest that the education of the treatment teams should be supported by continuous active learning processes in the workplace in order to promote transformation towards a person-centred culture.